Omnichannel Retail Solutions Explained + 2023 Top Brands

An omnichannel strategy is no longer optional — it's the key to unlocking huge revenue potential. Nearly half of consumers said they’re likely to purchase from a brand again after a personalized experience. Yet only 35% of companies report successfully offering omnichannel personalization to their customers.

If you can't consistently personalize customer interactions, you won't be able to cultivate the loyalty that delivers sustainable, long-term revenue growth. An omnichannel retail solution automatically unifies data across all channels so you can engage with consumers at any touchpoint and provide a truly seamless customer experience.

What is an omnichannel retail solution?

An omnichannel retail solution connects all of your platforms, tools, and marketing channels for the most efficient, cost-effective way to deliver seamless cross-channel experiences to your customers. 

Nearly 70% of customers want to interact with brands on more than one channel. With an omnichannel retail solution, all of these interactions are linked. Let's say someone looks at some items on your website but doesn't make a purchase. Later, they see a paid advertisement on Instagram about those specific products. This is an omnichannel retail solution at work, enabling customers to shop whenever and wherever is most convenient, whether that's on web, mobile, in-app, or in-store.

On the business side, an omnichannel retail solution unifies your customer data to give you a single view of each individual customer. By linking disparate data across multiple sources, you see a more complete picture of customer behavior, so you can better identify useful patterns, like seasonal trends, preferred channels, and customer journeys.

Your omnichannel retail solution uses this data to generate highly personalized marketing messages that reach your customers at the right time and place. Think back to that paid advertisement on Instagram. It wouldn't be possible if you didn't know what products that person was looking at and what other channels they use. An omnichannel retail solution automatically collects, aggregates, and analyzes this data in real time so you can set up automated marketing campaigns that are informed by customer behavior.

What are the benefits of using an omnichannel retail solution?

With an omnichannel retail solution, you provide both convenience and personalization — the two things customers expect from brands today. Here’s a list of the other benefits you can expect. 

Higher customer retention

When you consistently meet customer expectations for a seamless, personalized experience, they’re more likely to shop with you again. In 2022, 62% of consumers said they would stop buying from a brand if they received an un-personalized experience, increasing from 45% in 2021.

Customers prefer to stick with brands that offer personalized experiences because they reduce friction during the buying process. Earlier, we talked about a potential customer who saw a paid ad on Instagram based on their previous browsing history. Now, say they decide to add those items to their cart, but when they switch to their laptop to complete the purchase, their cart is empty. This might be enough to discourage them from completing their purchase. In contrast, an omnichannel retail solution links all of these channels to provide your customers with the uninterrupted shopping experience they crave and persuade them to keep buying from you.

Better customer engagement

An omnichannel retail solution provides you with full visibility of the customer journey. It allows you to reach customers at any stage with personalized messages they want to see, regardless of the channel.

By analyzing customer behavior in real time, you can pinpoint the right moment to engage with customers. If a prospective customer has added an item to their cart only to abandon it without completing the purchase, you don't want to wait too long to follow up. An omnichannel retail solution automates this process by tracking these actions and re-engaging prospects through personalized marketing messages, like a cart reminder email with a limited-time discount code.

Increased sales capacity

An omnichannel retail solution provides context for every conversation so you don't waste a customer's time, which speeds up the sales cycle. When customers don't experience friction during the buying journey, as in our earlier example, they don't need to rely on customer support or sales representatives. This frees up those teams to focus more on upselling, cross-selling, or solving other complex issues that require a personal touch.

According to McKinsey, 94% of B2B brands say that an omnichannel sales strategy is as effective or more compared to single-channel and multichannel marketing. With more data about each potential customer, your sales team is better equipped to pitch solutions that solve a specific prospect's problems and close a sale.

Data and analytics all in one place

You should already have first-party data from your customers. The challenge is turning that data into actionable insights that drive your business forward. An omnichannel retail solution provides full visibility of your customer data in real time so you can make better-informed marketing, sales, and product decisions.

To successfully implement any omnichannel strategy, first, you need to be able to identify each customer, no matter what channel they're using. Identity resolution accurately tracks the actions of individual customers across all touchpoints to attribute that behavior to a single customer profile. Aggregating this data into a unified view empowers your teams to better serve each customer, whether it's through personalized customer support or marketing automation.

Top omnichannel retail solutions

It's not easy to consolidate all of your customer touchpoints in one place. But the right omnichannel retail solution can do all that and more. Below are the best omnichannel retail solutions in 2023, selected because of their integrations and useful functionality in marketing, sales, customer support, and operations teams.

Twilio Engage

Twilio Engage is built on top of a scalable customer data platform, which enables businesses to collect, clean, and consolidate customer data into unified, real-time profiles. It also features over 400 extensible communications APIs, to companies can leverage this first-party data to customize engagement across every channel. 

Brightpearl

Brightpearl automates back-office tasks across all sales channels, from inventory and order management to fulfillment, to do much more than a traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Wynd

Designed for the hospitality and retail industries, Wynd is a cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) solution that easily integrates with existing systems to create an omnichannel customer experience.

NewStore

NewStore integrates inventory management, order management (OMS), POS, and more in their mobile-first omnichannel platform with Tap to Pay on iPhone.